Ars spoke to Florian Echtler, who created a program that allow you to resize and manipulate images. While the application is still in its early phases, Echtler claims that working with the hardware is easier than you'd expect. This is just the beginning.

Echtler's program began as a lark. "Having Hector's drivers made things very easy to start with, so it was just for fun at first." He's referring to Hector Martin, the man who won Adafruit Industry's $3,000 challenge to release an open-source driver for the Kinect hardware.

The Kinect used to resize and manipulate photographs

The process used to create the program shown in the video wasn't that tricky. "I've taken my existing multitouch library, libTISCH and basically just wrote a camera adapter," Echtler told Ars. The whole process took around half a day, but right now it's set up specifically for his living room. One of the goals he's working on is making the program more generic for use in multiple settings.

While people have brought up the possibility of using multiple Kinects to either increase the sensitivity of the hardware or to create a larger virtual space to move in, Echtler believes that won't work. He points out the hardware uses a structured light system to create its 3D tracking. Structured light systems use a known array of points of light, and then senses how that light is deformed in order to create a 3D image. Put two Kinects in the same space, and the hardware won't know how to deal with the extra points of light.

Replicating the secret sauce

Microsoft likes to make a big deal out of the proprietary software it has created to make sense of the data the Kinect spits out, but Echtler believes it's only a matter of time before it's replicated. "I suppose that won't take too long, at least on a proof-of-concept scale. Most of the algorithms used, e.g., for skeleton detection, are available freely in academic papers and have also been implemented in a research context," he said. "It's a matter of finding the correct pieces and putting them together, which can still be quite a task, but I believe it's entirely doable for a dedicated community."

Microsoft, however, seems actively hostile to the idea. "Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products," a company spokesperson said. "With Kinect, Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering. Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant."

Echtler finds that attitude short-sighted. "To be honest, I think [Microsoft] should be grateful for the free publicity. There's nothing in Hector's work which is the least bit illegal; even the DMCA expressly permits this kind of reverse engineering. It's probably more or less mandatory for the MS press guys to condemn any kind of hacking, tinkering or tweaking..."

"Kinect for Xbox 360 has not been hacked—in any way—as the software and hardware that are part of Kinect for Xbox 360 have not been modified. What has happened is someone has created drivers that allow other devices to interface with the Kinect for Xbox 360," Microsoft told GameSpot. "The creation of these drivers, and the use of Kinect for Xbox 360 with other devices, is unsupported. We strongly encourage customers to use Kinect for Xbox 360 with their Xbox 360 to get the best experience possible."

Collecting 3D data with the Kinect

We're seeing increasingly impressive uses for the hardware, including the ability to move a live image in 3D space, and as the open source community explores what the hardware can do it's only going to get better. Microsoft may not approve of non-authorized uses of the Kinect, but the genie is already out of the bottle.

Amazing that Microsoft should wish to stifle a community more than willing and able to experiment with their hardware. The potential for true innovation from enthusiasts is arguably far greater than that which might be achieved by a relatively small number of commercial entertainment focused development companies.

I am curious why this is always the demo. This activity was also the demo of Microsoft Surface. I can honestly say that I have never wanted my computer to present a disorganized pile of slightly crooked, oddly-sized photographs. That's the nice thing about a computer, it can put all your shit in a perfect grid for you in a millisecond.

<i>I don't get these companies that get pissed off when you make their products MORE attractive to purchase. "NOOOOOOOO, damn it!!!!! I don't want you to use it that way!!!!!" </i>Microsoft is most likely selling the Kinect at a loss. They make the money back when you buy games. If someone comes up with a use for the device that doesn't involve buying games then the economic model of Kinect collapses.

Put two Kinects in the same space, and the hardware won't know how to deal with the extra points of light.

Interlace the devices? Propellers and machine guns come to mind for some reason.

Look up the video of the Kinect in Infrared, and you'll probably understand why that wouldn't work.It actively covers the room in points of infrared light and uses those points of light to determine the location and size of objects in the room. Adding a second Kinect would probably require some way to distinguish which Kinect was sending out the light. A non-trivial and likely impossible (with the Kinect hardware) task.

[UPDATE] Since this article was published, Microsoft has issued the following statement through a spokesperson: "Kinect for Xbox 360 has not been hacked--in any way--as the software and hardware that are part of Kinect for Xbox 360 have not been modified. What has happened is someone has created drivers that allow other devices to interface with the Kinect for Xbox 360. The creation of these drivers, and the use of Kinect for Xbox 360 with other devices, is unsupported. We strongly encourage customers to use Kinect for Xbox 360 with their Xbox 360 to get the best experience possible."

Once again, Ars blows the reporting by layering their own (negative) interpretation of words onto a very clear statement. The statement is about TAMPERING and MODIFICATION. They use those words clearly. NOT about writing drivers and interfacing with the device itself. But this is the 2nd article in less than a week that has taken that verbatim statement, and turned it into "Microsoft is fighting the community!".

You're making that statement based on your own ideas, not based on any action or even WORDS to suggest it. Knock it off, it's a sloppy and poorly thought out syllogism at best.

Put two Kinects in the same space, and the hardware won't know how to deal with the extra points of light.

Interlace the devices? Propellers and machine guns come to mind for some reason.

Look up the video of the Kinect in Infrared, and you'll probably understand why that wouldn't work.It actively covers the room in points of infrared light and uses those points of light to determine the location and size of objects in the room. Adding a second Kinect would probably require some way to distinguish which Kinect was sending out the light. A non-trivial and likely impossible (with the Kinect hardware) task.

I believe PunditGuy is proposing to interleave the devices in the time domain, which should work fine as long as there's some protocol allowing Kinects in the same field of view to negotiate mutually exclusive phases.

NB obviously this requires a different revision of the hardware and software. But it's a logical extension of the Kinect idea.

Fascinating possibilities abound, using it as a quick and dirty 3d scanner may bring a lot of creative potential to the indie games community, perhaps?

But, again with the iBook in the header! As a former owner, this irritates me incredibly, and I don't know why. Maybe because that machine was the sexiest hack-job ever to be released by Cupertino? It boggles the mind how such a crooked little monster could be green lighted by Mr. "we scrapped the product after 5 years of R&D because it wasn't perfect" Jobs.

The author says: "Microsoft, however, seems actively hostile to the idea." and supports that with a statement from MS that says "Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products,". The article then quotes someone else saying: "It's probably more or less mandatory for the MS press guys to condemn any kind of hacking, tinkering or tweaking..."

It would seem to me that not condoning is a far cry from actively hostile. Not condoning means they don't accept it as appropriate behaviour. It seem perfectly reasonable as the product was designed to be used this way and MS does not want its reputation based on the performance of this device used in ways other than intended. Actively hostile, IMHO, means they are actively doing something to prevent this, such as cease and disist letter or suing. I don't see them doing that. Yes, I suppose it is active to make something tamper proof, but that is substantially different.

Then throw in the fact that MS was talking about "modifications to the product", e.g. taking the thing apart, and not just using different drivers, and it seems there's the making of mountains from mole hills.

Count me in with the others complaining about the negative Microsoft press on this. You're trying so hard to find something that's not there. Taking a comment about infringing manipulation of hardware and software, then placing it in an unrelated article about writing new drivers isn't exactly what people call good journalism. Most readers overlooked it last week, but it was inaccurate then and is still inaccurate now.

From Microsoft's point of view, using unauthorized drivers and connecting the hardware to a PC IS tampering and modification. That's why they released that statement in reaction to the idea of open-sourced drivers. You can disagree if you'd like, or point to quotes that are a little more tame, but the take away is that the company does not want you to buy this product for these purposes, especially if the profit margins are as tight as we've been told.

From Microsoft's point of view, using unauthorized drivers and connecting the hardware to a PC IS tampering and modification. That's why they released that statement in reaction to the idea of open-sourced drivers. You can disagree if you'd like, or point to quotes that are a little more tame, but the take away is that the company does not want you to buy this product for these purposes, especially if the profit margins are as tight as we've been told.

There's a huge difference between recommending usage be limited to Microsoft's intended platform (like HP recommending you use their "special" paper with their printers) and being openly hostile to the use. The previous article implied that Microsoft was planning to throw the legal team around at these developers. This article seems to continue in that vein. The reality, as shown by all the other PR comments out of Redmond, is that Microsoft doesn't support these activities, but isn't going to do anything about it either.

[UPDATE] Since this article was published, Microsoft has issued the following statement through a spokesperson: "Kinect for Xbox 360 has not been hacked--in any way--as the software and hardware that are part of Kinect for Xbox 360 have not been modified. What has happened is someone has created drivers that allow other devices to interface with the Kinect for Xbox 360. The creation of these drivers, and the use of Kinect for Xbox 360 with other devices, is unsupported. We strongly encourage customers to use Kinect for Xbox 360 with their Xbox 360 to get the best experience possible."

Ars has posted the other quote twice now, but not this one.

Ben Kuchera wrote:

That's why they released that statement in reaction to the idea of open-sourced drivers. You can disagree if you'd like, or point to quotes that are a little more tame, but the take away is that the company does not want you to buy this product for these purposes, especially if the profit margins are as tight as we've been told.

The recent teardown of the device revealed a bill of materials of about $56. That obviously doesn't include the software development or R&D, shipping, packaging, the free game, advertising, etc... But it also doesn't indicate tight profit margins.

I'm not going to get into a long argument about this, because the same quote keeps getting pulled up. Yes, I read that. I'm not sure what it's supposed to prove, other than to be a more mediagenic way of repeating themselves. Also, we spoke to iFixit about the Kinect, and they said they doubted the Kinect is very profitable as hardware.

Again, you're free to disagree, and I understand your point. I still stand by the wording of the story, however.

I think you have two major options with the depth camera. The first is to time-interleave Kinects, which seems like it should be pretty easy assuming they have sampling rates of something like 60Hz. ( you should be able to put quite a few together within that time window). The second option would be to polarize and filter the IR from each Kinect so that only the correct polarization can get through. I think the first seems the most reasonable in the available time. The major issue is going to be the switching time of the IR (since I'm pretty sure it was designed to be continous).

From Microsoft's point of view, using unauthorized drivers and connecting the hardware to a PC IS tampering and modification. That's why they released that statement in reaction to the idea of open-sourced drivers. You can disagree if you'd like, or point to quotes that are a little more tame, but the take away is that the company does not want you to buy this product for these purposes, especially if the profit margins are as tight as we've been told.

"Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products," a Microsoft spokesperson told CNET"

There is a big difference between releasing a statement, and someone calling up a company (or in this case talking to some unknown spokesperson) for a comment. It was a generic response, anyone with half a brain can see that. It was NOT an official press release in response to the topic at hand.

I can understand the confusion in the beginning, but continuing to support your original statements after the truth has come out is just bad journalism.

I'm not going to get into a long argument about this, because the same quote keeps getting pulled up. Yes, I read that. I'm not sure what it's supposed to prove, other than to be a more mediagenic way of repeating themselves. Also, we spoke to iFixit about the Kinect, and they said they doubted the Kinect is very profitable as hardware.

Again, you're free to disagree, and I understand your point. I still stand by the wording of the story, however.

...and we're free to point out that you have no evidence to reinforce your standpoint and wording. You're simply extrapolating what you *think* the future behavior of the company will be from a single statement.

Given that they have never stopped others from using the product for their own purposes (except those who try to profit on those modifications and tamperings by reselling to others) so why would this be any different? You need to provide SOMETHING to back up your standpoint here...past precedent would be useful. When has Microsoft stopped 3rd parties from using their hardware without modification outside of its intended purpose, without reselling?

For what it's worth, per unit production cost of a Kinect is estimated at 56 USD, i.e. they are sold with a comfortable margin.

IMO, Microsoft had to come out with an official stance on this which would be different from "please come and hack us". That's what they did. "Actively hostile" is not how I would define their reaction.

Ben, Ars' position on MS statements is so far out of whack as to be almost pure imagination. It's almost impossible to describe how fucking ridiculous it is that you continue to persist with it after evidence to the contrary, and it makes you guys look like fools. It was defensible when the news of the OS drivers first hit, but at this point it's just dumb.

For what it's worth, per unit production cost of a Kinect is estimated at 56 USD, i.e. they are sold with a comfortable margin.

I imagine that Microsoft includes R&D (what's not written off in taxes) and Advertising for the Kinect as part of their payback on pricing, so while the hardware seems like a big profit item, the soft costs no doubt narrow the profit margin quite bit. Especially if the advertising budget is as big as I have heard bandied about (a half billion(!)).

For what it's worth, per unit production cost of a Kinect is estimated at 56 USD, i.e. they are sold with a comfortable margin.

I imagine that Microsoft includes R&D (what's not written off in taxes) and Advertising for the Kinect as part of their payback on pricing, so while the hardware seems like a big profit item, the soft costs no doubt narrow the profit margin quite bit. Especially if the advertising budget is as big as I have heard bandied about (a half billion(!)).

Past R&D is paid for. They're not paying that back out of current Kinect revenue.

For clarification's sake I added the GameSpot quote, the rest of the wording will remain. I've pretty much said what I have to say on the issue, but you can continue to discuss the difference between hacks and custom drivers, as well as Microsoft's stance on using the hardware this way, in the comments.